Brawl at cricket pitch ends in murder

GURGAON: Following an argument, a 19-year-old, who works in a poultry shop, was stabbed to death by his friends during a game of cricket in a playground in Sector 44 on Tuesday. The Sushant Lok police have arrested the main suspect, a 22-year-old unemployed man, and are searching for the other suspects.

"The arrested has been identified as Niket alias Kalu, a resident of Kanhai Colony, who confessed to the crime. An FIR for murder has been lodged against five persons, including Niket. The others have been identified as Rohit, Navin, Bittu and Pawan. We are in the process of apprehending the others," said inspector Gaurav Phogat, SHO, Sushant Lok police station.

Police said 19-year-old Ikram Khan, a native of Ali Meo village in Hathin block of Palwal district was stabbed to death after the victim and the accused got into an argument during a game of cricket around 2 pm on Tuesday.

According to police, Ikram used to go to Sector 44 every day to play cricket with his friends in the colony. During the game, Ikram got into an argument with Niket. Soon the verbal spat turned into a physical fight. Their friends intervened and separated them. Following this, Niket left the place.

A while later, Niket returned with a butcher's knife. He went straight to Ikram, placed the weapon in the victim's neck and started the augment again. Their friends thought Niket was just threatening the victim and watched the verbal exchange. It was after Niket actually attacked Ikram with the knife that they intervened.

Police said the friends called up Ikram's family and then the police. The victim was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

A police team reached the spot while Niket was trying to flee.

The body was handed over to Ikram's family after postmortem.

"We are investigating if there was any previous enmity which led to this incident. We are interrogating the accused," said Phogat.